Badlands News Brief
Trans Easter Bait & A Tale of Two Presidents
The News Cycle is almost impossible to track these days. At least, to do so fully.
That’s where we come in.
In the Badlands News Brief, the Badlands Media team hand pick news items of interest from the previous days to give you an overview of the biggest goings-on relevant to the Truth Community.
Many items feature original (and subjective) commentary. Feel free to follow the corresponding link to see our writers’ Substack accounts and check out their other work.
Now, onto the news from the Weekend that Was …
Sunday marks both Easter and the Transgender Day of Visibility. Cue the culture war.
The “culture wars” have reached Easter.
President Joe Biden on Friday issued a proclamation recognizing March 31 as Transgender Day of Visibility, just as he has commemorated the day every year since he has been in office.
As Easter Sunday falls on March 31 this year, conservatives responded furiously, accusing the president, who is Catholic, of attempting to stifle Christian values by highlighting the event during an important religious holiday.
The controversy, which has galvanized conservatives and which transgender advocates say is manufactured, is the latest in a series of social conflicts that has enveloped the political process and current electoral cycle.
House leadership voiced their outrage, as did the Trump campaign, demanding an apology from the White House. The White House pushed back, saying that “as a Christian who celebrates Easter with family, President Biden stands for bringing people together and upholding the dignity and freedoms of every American.”
The Transgender Day of Visibility, observed on March 31 each year, was started by advocates 15 years ago as a way to celebrate transgender people and raise awareness of the discrimination they face.
Easter falls on a different date each year that is determined by a calculation related to lunar phases — the overlap between the two this year is coincidental. It is common for there to be multiple proclamations for the same date: Easter Sunday will also be Cesar Chavez day. — Politico
Our Take: “I’ve been watching the outrage this proclamation prompted from Christian influencers and mainstream conservative media.
The main talking point is that making the declaration of trans day of visibility on Easter Sunday is blasphemous and offensive to Christians.
To me, this is a really great opportunity to understand the online outrage machine and how it is used for emotional manipulation that serves our enemy in numerous ways.
Firstly, it entices conservatives into intentionally divisive eddies of social media. Here, they are meant to reinforce within each other the feeling of being attacked. The goal is right wing reactionary behaviour and fear of the erasure of the Christian identity.
Secondly, it provides fodder for the propaganda that is then fed to the left wing population.
This Politico headline couldn’t have more transparently identified the intention of operations like this.
Finally, this reads as an operation to me because Trans Day of Visibility was established in 2009 by Rachel Crandall, the head of Transgender Michigan, a Michigan-based transgender advocacy organization. It was initially held on March 31st, 2009, and has been observed on that date ever since.
Which means that these two ‘days’ won’t overlap again for another 11 years. Biden’s proclamation was intended to inflame and fuel the culture war.
What we need to be mindful of is how much the online outrage machine avails conservative cognition to the enemy. More specifically, how much will we allow operations like this to consume emotional energy within the digital domain that is better spent either in the physical domain or in using the digital domain to focus on building a parallel society?
We need to remember that curated outrage, especially when we are morally and objectively right about the nature of an attack, is one if the enemy’s go-to advantages.” —
Container ship that hit Baltimore bridge 'potentially atop high-pressure underwater gas line'
The federal government authorized $60 million for salvage efforts for the 1.6-mile-long Francis Scott Key Bridge at the Port of Baltimore, which collapsed on Tuesday after being struck by a large container ship. A massive CIA-linked floating crane has arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, along with other cranes, and it will soon begin clearing the mangled bridge from the shipping channel, which has paralyzed the entire port.
The salvage operation may not begin as seamlessly as government officials hoped. As Captain John Konrad, CEO of gCaptain, a website specializing in tracking the shipping industry, states, the 984-foot Singapore-flagged container ship Dali is apparently "sitting atop a high-pressure underwater gas line."
"Sources at ICS reports ship salvage effort will likely be delayed while line is surveyed and additional risk can be assessed," Konrad wrote on social media platform X. — ZeroHedge
Our Take: "In last Thursday’s Badlands News Brief, we discussed the sheening on the water near the Dali crash site, and Grace Ocean’s immediate contention that there was no pollution as a result of the marine disaster.
Now we’re learning that the Singapore-flagged container ship may have damaged its hull to such an extent that moving the ship is a challenge. As a reminder, the ship is carrying 1.8M gallons of fuel. We are also learning that the ship may be sitting atop a gas line, raising multiple questions:
Does the damage to the hull impact the fuel storage? Was the gas pipeline under the bridge damaged? Will moving the ship create ‘spill conditions’?
This disaster may not be over yet.” —
Biden Slammed For Partying With Lizzo While Trump Attends Wake Of Slain NYPD Officer
President Biden is under fire for partying with Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Lizzo, and other famous elitists at a $500,000 per ticket fundraiser held hours after former President Donald Trump attended the wake of a slain NYPD officer.
Earlier in the day, Biden's social media team tweeted an attack ad suggesting that Biden (who couldn't possibly hold a rally) is hard at work, while Trump is lazy on the golf course.
Meanwhile, Trump was honoring NYPD officer Jonathan Diller, who was murdered by a lifelong criminal during a routine traffic stop in Queens.
Of course this is all about optics - and one can criticize Trump for making Diller's wake essentially a campaign stop, but the juxtaposition between the partying Dems (who raised $25 million for Biden) and Trump mourning did not go unnoticed (h/t Modernity.news). — ZeroHedge
Our Take: “The juxtapositions between Trump and Biden continue to get more and more cartoonish as the Info War accelerates toward whatever inflection point November represents.
While we've been told "these people are stupid," I've never taken it quite as literally as others.
It serves little purpose for the establishment to parade Biden around the way they do, as he's catastrophically damaging whatever thin veneer of mandate to lead they worked so hard to cultivate, and then affect the 2020 steal on behalf of.
They're going to try again in 2024, but this time, I think the clown show will have accelerated so far that even the illusion of public mandate will be lost to them, creating a mass shatterpoint in the Collective Mind.
Unfortunately, another steal is an entirely reasonable scenario through which we might see this shatterpoint rendered real.
Whatever it takes to accelerate the awakening is the best end path, as awakening prompts the seizing of personal sovereignty, and thus, freedom.” —
Why the Department of Justice Wants to Take Down Apple
On May 5, 2021, White House press secretary Jen Psaki issued a mob-like warning to social-media companies and information distributors generally. They need to get with the program and start censoring critics of COVID policy. They need to amplify government propaganda. After all, it would be a shame if something would happen to these companies.
These were her exact words:
“The president’s view is that the major platforms have a responsibility related to the health and safety of all Americans to stop amplifying untrustworthy content, disinformation and misinformation, especially related to Covid-19 vaccinations and elections. And we’ve seen that over the past several months. Broadly speaking, I’m not placing any blame on any individual or group. We’ve seen it from a number of sources. He also supports better privacy protections and a robust antitrust program. So, his view is that there’s more that needs to be done to ensure that this type of misinformation, disinformation, damaging, sometimes life threatening information is not going out to the American public.”
On the face of it, the antitrust action against Apple is about their secure communications network. The Justice Department wants the company to share their services with other networks. As with so many other antitrust actions in history, this is really about the government’s taking sides in competitive disputes between companies, in this case Samsung and other smartphone providers. They resent the way Apple products all work together. They want that changed. — The Brownstone Institute
Our Take: “It’s funny to read this story about the Biden DOJ bullying Apple after recent SCOTUS arguments in Murthy v. Missouri reframe government coercion as ‘encouragement.’
In Apple’s case, the government is demonizing competition and trampling on intellectual property rights in the name of Antitrust.
‘The Justice Department wants the company to share their services with other networks… They resent the way Apple products all work together. They want that changed.’
That assessment feels right. Centralized control of information is critical to control of the collective mind — and the regime is failing in that.
The shadow bureaucracy effectively ran the social media platforms in the run up to 2020, and they’ve been out of the shadows since scrotus took office. Here it appears they’re seeking that level of control — the capabilities they have/had with Facebook or old Twitter — over the device hardware and networking infrastructure.
Danger ahead.” —
BONUS ITEMS
US Withheld From Russia Intel On Terror Plot Due To 'Adversarial Relationship'
The US did not share all the information it had about a terrorist plot in Russia ahead of the shooting at a concert hall outside of Moscow that killed over 140 people, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
The paper said that the "adversarial relationship between Washington and Moscow prevented US officials from sharing any information about the plot beyond what was necessary, out of fear Russian authorities might learn their intelligence sources or methods."
In response to the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he was unaware of information about the US withholding intelligence and cast doubt on the report. "The information of The New York Times, citing sources, is information that should be treated with great caution," he said.
The US Embassy in Moscow issued a public warning on March 7 that specifically warned Americans in Russia that "extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts" and to avoid large gatherings for 48 hours.
The US also passed along the warning to Russia privately, which Russian FSB chief Aleksandr Bortnikov said was "of a general nature."
Sources told the Times that Russia tightened security after the warning but may have relaxed it after an attack didn’t happen in the 48-hour window. The report said it was unclear if US intelligence was wrong about the timing of the attack or if the perpetrators noticed the heightened security and decided to wait. — AntiWar.com
Mike Pompeo Comments on Potentially Being Trump's Vice President Choice
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who served under ex-President Donald Trump, was asked on Wednesday about potentially being chosen as Trump's running mate, saying he'd "be pretty inclined to go try and be a part of the team."
Trump became the presumptive Republican presidential candidate following a string of GOP primary victories on Super Tuesday, setting up a likely rerun of the 2020 contest against President Joe Biden.
Speculation over Trump's pick for a possible vice presidency has intensified in the last few weeks, with Trump having fallen out with his former vice president, Mike Pence, who said he would not endorse Trump in the 2024 presidential election.
When asked about his choice for a potential vice president at a Town Hall event on Fox News in January, Trump said, "I can't tell you that really, I mean, I know who it's going to be."
While speaking on The Guy Benson Show on Wednesday, Pompeo was asked if he would be open to being Trump's running mate. Pompeo replied in part, "If I got a chance to serve or the president wanted me to serve and I thought I could make a difference, I am almost certain that I would say yes to a request like that.
"If I thought I could literally help the president be successful in whatever role that might be, I'd be pretty inclined to go try and be part of the team to actually deliver good outcomes for the country," Pompeo said. — Newsweek
Georgia Republicans approve bill to adopt new election rules ahead of November
Georgia lawmakers approved legislation Thursday that would give clearer guidelines for voter eligibility challenges, strengthen the security of paper ballots, and introduce new rules for qualifying for the state’s presidential ballot.
Senate Bill 189 is a result of an influx of voter challenges in the state following former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, which he claimed was the result of voter fraud. Republican lawmakers in swing states have been attempting to tighten voting restrictions going into the 2024 elections.
The bill clarifies “probable cause” in the event a voter wants to challenge their eligibility. “Probable cause” could be constituted if a voter has been registered in another jurisdiction, obtaining a homestead exemption in a different country, or giving a non-residential address such as a post office box, the Georgia Recorder reported.
Any political party that has qualified to be on the presidential ballot in 20 states will have access to Georgia’s ballot, according to the new legislation. This would make it easier for independent presidential candidates like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is required to garner enough signatures on petitions in all 50 states in order to get his name on the ballot. Kennedy’s super PAC claimed he has qualified to be on Georgia’s ballot.
Some Democratic lawmakers were not fond of the “probable cause” provision in the bill, writing it off as another attempt to disenfranchise voters. — The Washington Examiner
Donald Trump's Lawyers Have Changed How They Refer to Him
Donald Trump's legal team twice referred to his time in the White House as his "first term" as president in a recent court filing in his classified documents case.
The former president is facing a total of 40 felony charges over allegations he illegally held on to classified papers after leaving the White House in January 2021 then obstructed efforts to get them returned to the relevant authorities. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all counts and strongly denies any wrongdoing.
On March 12, Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election following a series of primary victories, setting up a likely rematch against President Joe Biden. This has focused attention on what a second Trump term could look like amid his ongoing legal battles, with the former president facing criminal charges in four separate cases.
Trump's legal team filed a seven page document to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, where he will stand trial in the classified documents case, on March 24. This was done in support for his controversial bid to get the charges dismissed on the basis of presidential immunity. — Newsweek
We hope you enjoyed this brief look back at the major news items you might have missed in this ever-escalating and ever-accelerating news cycle as the Information War continues to rage on around us.
As always, if you have any thoughts on these news items or the MANY others swirling in the digital ether, drop into the comments below to share them with your fellow Badlanders.
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President Trumps Easter message was uplifting and hopeful, while Biden's NO religion theme and Tranny were not welcomed except by the left few.
This was the first Easter all my boys and grands were able to come. It was fun to see my 6 -6-year-old Granddaughter hunt plastic easter eggs. We kept it low-key old fashion with the traditional ham and fixings. Ham, I bought it on sale at Christmas and froze.
"We need to remember that curated outrage, especially when we are morally and objectively right about the nature of an attack, is one if the enemy’s go-to advantages.”
Spot on, Simon. Conservatives get triggered just like the Left, and the media psychos spur this on.